New stuff

New picture, new title, new attitude.

That's my story and I'm stickin' with it.

I took a heart rate zone/VO2/metabolic test earlier this week. This was recommended by Coach Dan.

I had taken one about three years and fifteen pounds ago after completing a 12-week fitness program.

The results this time around were not as pretty.

For this test, you get hooked up to a machine which reads your heart rate as you walk and then eventually run on a teadmill. The speed and incline of the treadmill gets raised about every minute. You run until you can't run any more, which should be at your HR max.

Oh, and your nose gets plugged off by a clip so you are forced to breathe through your mouth. You are also clenching your teeth on to a rubber tube which funnels the air to some apparatus which measures your oxygen output recording your VO2.

Fun stuff.

The wus in me says "HEY! The test wasn't fair! The guy giving the test kept telling me "...any time you want to stop, just hit the bar... ANY TIME.... just HIT THE BAR when you WANT TO STOP" as I was gasping for air. He SHOULD have said "atta girl, Amy! Keep it up! Keep it going! You ROCK!"

I 'hit' the bar early and about 7 beats lower than I had three years ago.
Actually, I really did about as well as I could do on the dang test. I'm older, heavier and just getting back in to it.

Surprisingly, my base VO2 max is really pretty good. My use of VO2 while exerting myself can be improved though.

I also had an underwater weigh-in. No surprise there, as I've been weighing myself on my 'fat' scale. By "fat", I don't mean like "OHHHH, you are toooo fat to get weighed" scale. I'm talking about one of those 'measure your weight, the number of fat pounds you have, the percentage this is of your whole weight, your bone mass index and your BMI' scales.

The good news is that I've been tracking my food on Livestrong.com and I've been dropping a bit of weight. My goal is to do this slowly until March, when real IM WI training begins.

I also had to do a 30-minute bike time trial on Saturday. My Coach had me do a 10-minute warm up and then do 30-mintues, after which I had to track my average heart rate. I followed that up by another 40-minute easy ride.

I think the tests are over for awhile.

This week is a "recovery" week. I actually had today off, which was very nice. I've got a couple swims; bikes and runs scheduled for the week and will do my first "brick" of the year on Friday (45 minute bike followed by a 25 minute run)

And so it goes...